Your Island Civilization
Schedules have been disrupted lately, heat has been omnipresent, and violent thunderstorms have knocked out power temporarily, so Grandmother's School has had a somewhat hit-or-miss time of it! Still, the granddaughters have worked on a booklet making their own island civilization. Of course, the very first thing to do is to write your name on the booklet!
We began by reading a favorite poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Land of Counterpane," about a little boy with a big imagination. The girls were encouraged to use their imagination as they worked on making their own island civilization.
Next, we discussed where islands could be. What a revelation! Islands don't have to be in the middle of an ocean. They can be in a river, a lake, an ocean, a sea, even a pond!
Not all islands have beaches and palm trees. It depends on where your island is, so next we looked at a map of the world. The girls decided what kind of climate they wanted their island to have, and where in the world it should be.
After all this geography, the girls were called upon to be creative again by thinking of an original way to give directions to their island.
After thinking about islands, it was time to turn our attention to what the word civilization means.
This all took a long time, so it was time for "school" to be out for the day. A few days later, we reviewed and then started to connect everything learned so far into creating an Island Civilization.
The girls are still working on this, and when they finish, we'll end the project by having them draw a large map (with all map components: title, key, compass rose, labels) of their island. It's a multi-day, multi-subject project, but because it stresses creativity and art in addition to the geography and social studies content, it seems more fun than study--at least I hope so!
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